Short Fairy Tales For Adults

Jenny is the smallest of all the small girls in the world. She is afraid of foxes, the rabbits, the birds, and even the mice that roam the forbidden moor where she lives. When one day she falls down a mouse hole, she must find a way to be brave. Will she escape? Or remain the most afraid miniature girl there ever was?

A toy giant and a clockwork unicorn star in this retelling of Aesop's fable "The Lion and the Mouse" in a steampunk fantasy setting.

Grandma's house was a magical place, and in this vivid memoir, Donald Davis makes it possible for each of us to go back to our own grandma's kitchen, clutter room, living room, and to that immeasurable bed that seemed to swallow us whole. This selection also contains a traditional story Davis learned from his grandmother, one handed down through his family from generations who once lived in Scotland before coming to the Appalachian mountains, about the time that fortune-seeker named Jack made the king mad.

Storyteller Cindy Killavey has entertained audiences from Hawaii to New England to Ireland with both traditional and modern stories. In this traditional tale, Jack may be lazy but he has some amazing adventures on his way to fame and fortune.

This is a selection from The Jungle Book, in which a mongoose saves the day.

This is a selection from Kipling's The Second Jungle Book.

When a young John Lambton skips church to go fishing, he catches something unnatural. Fearful of his father's reaction to both skipping church and bringing such a foul creature to the house - he it throws in the well. Years later, after fighting in the Crusades, John returns home to an unpleasant surprise.

This is the first story of The Jungle Book, in which the reader is introduced to Mowgli, the jungle boy, and his animal friends.

Jonathan ist 10 und ein Junge, der nicht weiter auffällt. Dennoch ist er voller Wissensdurst, da er glaubt, dass es da noch eine andere Wahrheit gibt, als die, die ihm seine Eltern nicht müde werden, aufs Brot zu schmieren. Und so macht sich Jordan auf die Suche nach Antworten... bis er eines Tages den Mut aufbringt, den Mann zu besuchen, der am Ende ihrer Straße wohnt; von dem aber so gut wie niemand etwas weiß. Und diese Begegnung ist es, die Jonathans Leben nachhaltig verändert.

This story, one of Harte's most anthologized, first appeared in The Luck of Roading Camp and Other Stories.

Frank Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular. His most famous fable is "The Lady or the Tiger?" (1882), about a man sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with a king's beloved daughter. Other memorable tales are "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", "Old Pypes and the Dryad", and "Mr. Tolman".

"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood," I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an okay thing to wish for something, but it is not an OK thing to get it."

Frank Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular. His most famous fable is "The Lady or the Tiger?" (1882), about a man sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with a king's beloved daughter. Other memorable tales are "The Griffin and the Minor Canon", "Old Pypes and the Dryad", and "Mr. Tolman".

Ku-aya led a joyful life with her parents and her three younger brothers. Her days were spent tending to the fields of wheat, watching over the herd of sheep, and dancing along the banks of the salt river that ran through the center of her beautiful, sprawling village. Every dawn brought new blessings from the Sky Father above.